Weekend Watch - Here

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch, where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is the latest film from Robert Zemeckis, teaming him back up with Forrest Gump stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, Here, based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire. The film takes a look at a single location in the world across time, using a single camera angle to present the many eras and stories of this single location, focusing primarily on the life of Richard (Hanks), who grows up and lives much of his life in the living room of his family’s suburban house – the film’s location. In addition to Hanks and Wright, the film also features Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly, Lauren McQueen, Harry Marcus, Zsa Zsa Zemeckis, Michelle Dockery, David Fynn, Ophelia Lovibond, Nicholas Pinnock, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Anya Marco Harris in varying roles throughout the history of the location. The film opened last weekend to mixed reviews from critics and audiences. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: C; it’s a high concept, low execution film, but it’s not terrible.

Should you Watch This Film? There’s nothing in Here that demands to be seen on the big screen, but if you’re a fan of Hanks or the creative swings that Zemeckis takes, it’ll be worth catching when this film hits streaming (or Freeform on a Sunday afternoon).

Why?

                As a concept, Here is one of the most interesting and cool films of the year. Unfortunately, in its execution it fails to give audiences anything of substance, relying much more heavily on its gimmick than its story or characters to create a film worth watching, and the result is a film that certainly engages but leaves us with a relatively hollow film whose themes will most likely resonate with audiences whose life has already moved beyond learning the lesson that the film has to offer. Hanks gives a solid performance, but Wright and most of the rest of the ensemble feel fairly sidelined by the film’s commitment to jumping between stories and timelines and to revolving its story around period and generational norms. The film’s women are mostly held in reserve, playing generic mother figures for the most part, and even fun-loving Stella Beekman (Ophelia Lovibond) in the 1920s ends up as an eye-candy pinup girl rather than individual character with any agency. In terms of message, Zemeckis seems to want his audience to remember to take time to do what they love when they can rather than waiting for some nebulous future that is far from guaranteed. On one hand, this should be a resonant message were it not hampered by clunky theming around the limiting nature of children and families, especially for mothers, choosing to center regret as its primary emotional motivator rather than any positive emotion – indeed the one person who does seem to achieve the fullness of their dreams never really gets any time on screen once they’ve done so. Creatively, the single shot framing and even the time jumps do work to keep you engaged, I just don’t know that they’re enough to overcome a dated and stale story to make Here a film for everyone. If you do want to see it in theaters, you can probably still find it; otherwise, you can wait to catch this one on streaming or skip it until it shows up on television around Thanksgiving next year.

Weekend Watch - Venom: The Last Dance

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is the third film in Tom Hardy’s Venom trilogy, Venom: The Last Dance, which looks to be the final installment of Sony’s partnership with Hardy in bringing the symbiote antihero to the big screen. Co-written by its star Hardy and director Kelly Marcel (Cruella and Fifty Shades of Grey), the film also features performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, and Cristo Fernández. It opened this weekend to the same collection of mixed reviews from audiences and critics as its two predecessors. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: C-; it’s just as ok as the two films that came before – fun but not at all substantial.

Should you Watch This Film? If you like the first two Venom films, you’ll probably enjoy this one as well. If you want something fresh, new, and groundbreaking, this film is not the film for you.

Why?

                Venom: The Last Dance seeks to establish itself as the true conclusion to a trilogy. Unfortunately, the trilogy it’s seeking to conclude lacked serious thematic and/or narrative cohesion, and the result is yet another tonally disjointed film with oddly communicated stakes and a marked lack of any natural emotional beats, which trilogy concluders so often seek. There’s some solid sound and visual effects work being done on the part of the post-production team, and the film does take some big swings with its action sequences, but none of it ever comes together with the intervening story to make something that feels at all better than a middling 2000s superhero film, just like the two films that came before. I appreciate the effort and love that Hardy and Marcel seem to have poured into their script and the film itself, but they seem to be working at a studio where no one else cares enough about their product and characters to actually give them the editing and fine-tuning that it would take to make these films into something great. On paper, a goofy, violent, multi-personality anti-hero should be an easy slam dunk in this age of superhero films, but Sony has never been able to get out of their own way and let these films be as self-aware as they’d need to be to work. Don’t get me wrong, the action set pieces are really fun here – arguably the best of the trilogy – but the story might be the weakest of the trilogy. It’s decent enough to please those who have been pleased with the first two entries, but it does nothing well enough to sway any new fans or break into new territory for the superhero genre. If you want new Venom content, go check it out in theaters. If not, don’t worry about making it for this one.

Weekend Watch - The Wild Robot

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is the latest release from DreamWorks Animation, the film adaptation of Peter Brown’s book The Wild Robot. The film is written and directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon) and features the voice talents of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor, Stephanie Hsu, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames, Mark Hamill, and Catherine O’Hara. It follows the adventure of a helpful robot stranded on an island populated only by animals who view her as a potential predator or prey. The film opened this weekend in the U.S., winning the box office in the process. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: A; this is a top 5 film this year for me, and I expect it will be for you as well with its beautiful animation and poignant story.

Should you Watch This Film? Absolutely! This is a film you can watch on your own, with friends, with a significant other, with kids, really with anyone, and you’ll all walk away with something to appreciate.

Why?

                If you’ve seen any trailers for The Wild Robot, you already know that its animation is gorgeous both stylistically and in execution, and that rings true throughout the film, but there have been plenty of animated films in the last decade that are beautifully produced but lack in the story department. This is not one of those films. The voice acting is superb and lends to the story’s emotional weight and poignancy, and the story itself feels just fresh enough to engage even the most cynical moviegoer. While a few minor clichés hold it back from being a perfect A+ film, the story about found family, adaptation, kindness, and even motherhood is certainly one of the most original brought to a mainstream film in the medium in quite some time. It is poignant and important, imparting not just emotional payoffs but actual life lessons that we all need to learn and/or be reminded of in the trying times we live in. This film deserves to be the front-runner for most of the animated awards in the coming award season.

                I came into the theater to watch The Wild Robot expecting quality animation and potentially some emotional beats, but I didn’t necessarily expect to be so wowed by the film’s story and characters. From the jump, we are immersed in this world of wilderness where a robot like the film’s titular protagonist, ROZZUM Unit 7134 or “Roz” (Nyong’o), sticks out like a sore thumb, lacking the ability initially to even communicate with its unsuspecting “customers”. The hilarity and tragedy of Roz’s situation are portrayed excellently as she struggles to find anyone willing to even speak with her after she spends months learning to translate the language of the animals. Eventually her quest brings her an orphaned gosling to adopt and prepare for the coming migration, giving her a new directive – feed the baby goose, teach it to swim, and teach it to fly by the time the rest of the island’s geese undertake their migration ahead of its harsh winters. Roz’s conversations with her less than willing “co-parent” Fink the fox (Pascal) about “programming” and the laws of nature and survival skills mirror concepts that we all are familiar with in our own lives – nature, nurture, social norms, and the competition that society breeds into us. As the film goes on and we see Roz’s gosling Brightbill (Connor) mature into a semi-functional adult goose, those themes become more central alongside the film’s surprisingly profound exploration of motherhood and family, as viewed through the lens of Roz’s role in Brightbill’s life and the lives of the rest of the island’s inhabitants. The film’s final act has a few of its most cliché moments, but it brings everything home in a solid way without feeling the need to put a perfect bow on everything, making it one of the more adventurous mainstream animated films in that area as well.

                The Wild Robot is simply one of the best films of the year so far thanks to its gorgeous animation, skilled voice acting, and poignant story that explores themes relevant to viewers of all ages, engaging not just children, but parents, teens, and single adults as well. It’s a film worth checking out in theaters if possible, especially with its quality animation. Definitely seek it out if it’s playing near you.